Javier Imbroda, national basketball coach and Andalusian Minister of Education, dies at the age of 61 | Spain

The Minister of Education and Sports of the Junta de Andalucía, Javier Imbroda Ortiz, has died on the afternoon of this Saturday, April 2, at the age of 61. Last year he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a disease that he had already been treated for in 2016 and that he had managed to overcome. His mortal remains have been transferred to the Malaga Cemetery Park (Parcemasa), where a mass will be celebrated this Sunday afternoon. At the express wish of the family, which appreciates all the signs of support received, he will be fired in the strictest privacy, as communicated by his communication team.

Born in Melilla in 1961, Imbroda has been one of the most mediatic advisers of the bipartite Government of Andalusia. Brother of the president of the Autonomous City of Melilla, the popular Juan José Imbroda, the person in charge of the Education and Sports portfolio was no stranger to politics or Citizens when he assumed the portfolio in the Andalusian Government. He already linked a close friendship with Albert Rivera before announcing his signing as an independent for the orange party.

Doctor in Research and Educational Innovation from the University of Malaga and Master in Senior Business Management from the San Telmo International Institute, the combative and ambitious spirit that he forged from the basketball benches, where he directed the national team between 2001 and 2002, in addition from other teams such as Unicaja de Málaga, Caja San Fernando or Real Madrid, he kept him during his almost four years at the head of the Ministry of Education.

During his speech this Saturday at the national congress of the PP, the president of the Board referred to him expressly, recognizing his work at the head of the government, aware, without a doubt, that he was already very serious. This very morning, after learning of his death, the popular leader has shown his condolences through a tweet: “You leave us your legacy and we have your memory, which we will always honor”, ​​accompanied by a photo of him on a basketball court, the stage in which he was most comfortable. The Junta de Andalucía has decreed three days of official mourning, confirmed Moreno himself, for whom this loss has been “very hard in personal terms.” The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchezhas also said goodbye to the politician and coach.

The president of his party, Inés Arrimadas, and leaders of the training, such as the vice president of the Board and coordinator of Ciudadanos in Andalusia, John Marin, or others such as Guillermo Díaz, Luis Garicano or José Ramón Bauzá, have also joined the displays of affection through messages on their social networks.

Albert too Rivera, who personally appointed him to lead the lists for Malaga in the 2018 regional elections, has said goodbye to him on Twitter. “A great man has left, a wise man in sports, in business, in education… in life. And he has also left one of my best friends, whom I admired and loved deeply. But he will never die, we will always have his light and his wisdom. ”

Since he was diagnosed with cancer again last year, every time he was asked about the future of his party or if he would repeat as a Ciudadanos candidate, he did not refuse to answer – he was always clear and direct – but he did so with the nuance that “He only cared about the day to day.” “I don’t think about what I’m going to do or where I’m going to be in a year, but in the next week,” he repeated, always accompanied by a smile. His last public appearance was on March 22 at the Government Council held in the Sevillian town of Carmona.

depoliticize education

Just as he had done on the parquet of the basketball courts, he tried to transfer the culture of effort and self-improvement, in which he firmly believed and which brought him success in sports, to the political project that he began in the Andalusian Government . His main obsessions, which he reiterated in each public appearance or in the halls of the breakfasts or events he attended, was to depoliticize education and seek excellence in the classroom. That cost him disagreements with Vox, on account of the parental veto, and with the education unions, which did not share some of his initiatives, such as school reinforcement classes in the summer in educational centers. His main challenge in this legislature, however, was to adapt the school year to both the pandemic and the educational reform —with which he was critical and skeptical—.

Although he already had some management experience before assuming the ministry, in 2011 he was appointed director of the Sports Area of ​​the Malaga City Council, directed by popular Francisco de la Torre, upon arriving at the Board he soon realized that the administrative bureaucracy – and also political tripping- prevented him from executing his purposes in the direct and expeditious manner with which he did it from the bench. His entry into politics was very thoughtful. He defined himself liberal and moderate and was aware that he was doing it at a time when the guild was highly discredited and he knew first-hand the risks, since his brother, Juan José Imbroda, was then president of the city. Autonomous of Melilla. “I get involved to try to contribute my knowledge and experience throughout a professional life in different sectors,” he acknowledged. However, and although he became essential in the Moreno government, he himself had no shame in recognizing that the times and the conditioning factors of politics had little to do with the way he understood public life.

Sports achievements

Although in these years he has not stopped visiting schools, training centers or inaugurating infrastructures, where he was most comfortable was when he addressed sports matters. One of his greatest achievements and of those he boasted about has been to recover the Olympic stadium of La Caruja, an abandoned facility that he managed to rehabilitate in record time and turn into the scene of several matches of the European Football Championship. There, on October 21, the inauguration ceremony of the Spanish Basketball Hall of Fame was also held. That night she was happy. “These are mine,” she said happily. Many of the winners had either been under his command or had played on opposing teams. They all had words of appreciation.

Because before entering the offices of politics, Imbroda had already forged a solid career under the baskets. As national coach he beat the US team in the World Cup in Indianapolis in 2002, a competition in which Spain won gold, after having won bronze in the European Championships in Turkey. He sowed the seed of the Golden generation of Spanish basketball. Before, he directed the quintets of Mayoral Marsitas, of Unicaja, getting the ACB runner-up, in 1995, to Caja San Fernando (1998-2001), Real Madrid (2002-2003), Valladolid (2006-2008) and Menorca. , in 2009 and acted as an assistant for the Lithuanian basketball team, with Arvidas Sabonis at the helm, which won the bronze medal at the Barcelona 92 ​​Olympic Games.

The world of sports, and especially basketball, have also recognized Imbroda’s sporting career and have fired him on social networks, such as the Basketball Federation, the AC LeagueB, in which he played 607 games.

After leaving high competition basketball, he began his career as an expert in coachingan experience that he captured in his latest book: train to lead. He was a founding partner of several companies related to training, entrepreneurship and sports medicine. In 2014 he established the foundation that bears his name and with which he intends to offer children at risk of social exclusion outlets based on education and sports.

“My wife told me that this was the game I needed to win, and I’m on it. And that hope is what I want to convey to all those cancer patients like me, telling them: Never give up.” This is how Imbroda announced that he had cancer in 2017. Although he was initially reluctant to do so, as he himself acknowledged, it was the doctors who recommended that he make it public to encourage those who also suffered from this disease. He never hid or put other names to cancer and since then he has shared his experiences to help others. As he did in all facets of his life, he never threw in the towel.